OF LIBERALITY AND NIGGARDLINESS
Beginning now with the first qualities above named, I say that it
would be well to be considered liberal; nevertheless liberality used
in such a way that you are not feared will injure you, because if
used virtuously and in the proper way, it will not be known, and you
will not incur the disgrace of the contrary vice. But one who wishes
to obtain the reputation of liberality among men, must not omit every
kind of sumptuous display, and to such an extent that a prince of this
character will consume by such means all his resources, and will be
at last compelled, if he wishes to maintain his name for liberality,
to impose heavy charges on his people, become an extortioner, and do
everything possible to obtain money. This will make his subjects begin
to hate him and he will be little esteemed being poor, so that having
by this liberality injured many and benefited but few, he will feel
the first little disturbance and be endangered by every accident. If
he recognises this and wishes to change his system, he incurs at once
the charge of niggardliness; a prince, therefore, not being able to
exercise this virtue of liberality without risk if it is known, must
not, if he is prudent, object to be called miserly. In course of time
he will be thought more liberal, when it is seen that by his parsimony
his revenue is sufficient, that he can defend himself against those
who make war on him, and undertake enterprises without burdening his
people, so that he is really liberal to all those from whom he does not
take, who are infinite in number, and niggardly to all to whom he does
not give, who are few.
In our times we have seen nothing great done except by those who have
been esteemed niggardly; the others have all been ruined. Pope Julius
II., although he had made use of a reputation for liberality in order
to attain the papacy, did not seek to retain it afterwards, so that
he might be able to make war on the King of France, and he earned on
so many wars without imposing an extraordinary tax, because his extra
expenses were covered by the parsimony he had so long practised. The
present King of Spain, if he had been thought liberal, would not have
engaged in and won so many enterprises. For these reasons a prince must
care little for the reputation of being a miser, if he wishes to avoid
robbing his subjects, if he wishes to be able to defend himself, to not
become poor and contemptible, and not to be forced to become rapacious;
this vice of niggardliness is one of those vices which enable him to
reign. If it is said that Cæsar attained the empire through liberality,
and that many others have reached the highest positions through being
liberal or being thought so, I would reply that you are either a prince
already or else on the way to become one. In the first case, this
liberality is harmful; in the second, it is certainly necessary to be
considered liberal, and Cæsar was one of those who wished to attain the
mastery over Rome, but if after attaining it he had lived and had not
moderated his expenses, he would have destroyed that empire. And should
any one reply that there have been many princes, who have done great
things with their armies, who have been thought extremely liberal, I
would answer by saying that the prince may either spend his own wealth
and that of his subjects or the wealth of others. In the first case
he must be sparing, but in the second he must not neglect to be very
liberal. This liberality is very necessary to a prince who marches with
his armies, and lives by plunder, sacking and extorting, and is dealing
with the wealth of others, for without it he would not be followed
by his soldiers. And you may be very generous indeed with what is
not the property of yourself or your subjects, as were Cyrus, Cæsar,
and Alexander; for spending the wealth of others will not diminish
your reputation, but increase it, only spending your own resources
will injure you. There is nothing which destroys itself so much as
liberality, for by using it you lose the power of using it, and become
either poor and despicable, or, to escape poverty, rapacious and hated.
And of all things that a prince must guard against, the most important
are being despicable or hated, and liberality will lead you to one or
other of these conditions. It is, therefore, wiser to have the name
of a miser, which produces disgrace without hatred, than to incur of
necessity the name of being rapacious, which produces both disgrace and
hatred.